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St. Augustine man wins about $12K on "Jeopardy!" Tuesday night

Jim Abbott, 46, is hanging up his game show hat.

The St. Augustine property appraiser and trivia buff appeared on “Jeopardy!” Tuesday night. It was his second time qualifying for the show and his second game show appearance in 11 years. He is also the second St. Augustine resident in the past two weeks to compete on the show — local musician Stu Weaver won $1 on the show that aired June 14.

Abbott, who grew up playing Trivial Pursuit with his family, got his first call to be a contestant on “Jeopardy!” in 2001. He was excited until he heard the taping date — it was the same time he was supposed to be in New York City to compete on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”

Abbott chose “Millionaire” instead, won the fastest finger competition with his knowledge of ’80s music, and found himself in the hot seat across from former host Regis Philbin.

He answered 10 questions correctly until he missed the benchmark $32,000 question, walking away with $1,000.

About a year ago, his chance for redemption came.

Abbott took the online “Jeopardy!” test and became one of about 3,000 people asked to go in for an audition in Orlando. There, he took another 50-question test, played a mini-game of “Jeopardy!” and answered interview questions about his personality.

Shortly after that he got the call for the second time — he’d made it on to “Jeopardy!” He flew out to Los Angeles in February to film the show.

After the filming, he was told that he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about the show or his performance until the June airing — not even his family. The Abbotts had a viewing party Tuesday night with family and close friends.

Abbott said though he wasn’t thrilled by the categories he had to choose from, the hardest part about the show was working the buzzer, not the trivia.

Contestants have to wait until host Alex Trebek is completely finished saying the clue before they can buzz in. If they push their buzzer too early, they’re held out a half second — just enough time to be devastating when you’re competing against other trivia buffs, Abbott said.

Abbott was solidly in second place with $6,600 coming into the “Final Jeopardy” round. He was trailing the leader, Jon Shoup, by $8,600. Then he saw the category: Historic U.S. Cities.

Abbott was a history major in college who hadn’t had a history question yet. He couldn’t help but smile.

“A 1905 Treaty named for this U.S. city ended a foreign war 7,000 miles away & was actually signed at Kittery, Maine,” Trebek said.

Abbott’s answer: “What is Portsmouth, New Hampshire?”

He was the only one of the three contestants to answer correctly and ended up taking home second place and $12,401 — money he said he’ll use to pay bills.

“That’ll be the last game show I’m on,” he said. “But I’m glad I did it. It was one of the things on my bucket list, and now I can scratch it off.”